Socio-cognitive profiles for visual learning in young and older adults.
View / Open Files
Publication Date
2015Journal Title
Front Aging Neurosci
ISSN
1663-4365
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Volume
7
Number
105
Language
English
Type
Article
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Christian, J., Goldstone, A., Kuai, S., Chin, W., Abrams, D., & Kourtzi, Z. (2015). Socio-cognitive profiles for visual learning in young and older adults.. Front Aging Neurosci, 7 (105) https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2015.00105
Abstract
It is common wisdom that practice makes perfect; but why do some adults learn better than others? Here, we investigate individuals' cognitive and social profiles to test which variables account for variability in learning ability across the lifespan. In particular, we focused on visual learning using tasks that test the ability to inhibit distractors and select task-relevant features. We tested the ability of young and older adults to improve through training in the discrimination of visual global forms embedded in a cluttered background. Further, we used a battery of cognitive tasks and psycho-social measures to examine which of these variables predict training-induced improvement in perceptual tasks and may account for individual variability in learning ability. Using partial least squares regression modeling, we show that visual learning is influenced by cognitive (i.e., cognitive inhibition, attention) and social (strategic and deep learning) factors rather than an individual's age alone. Further, our results show that independent of age, strong learners rely on cognitive factors such as attention, while weaker learners use more general cognitive strategies. Our findings suggest an important role for higher-cognitive circuits involving executive functions that contribute to our ability to improve in perceptual tasks after training across the lifespan.
Keywords
perceptual learning, visual perception, psychophysics, cognitive abilities, social profiles, individual differences
Sponsorship
This work was supported by grants to ZK from the Leverhulme Trust [RF-2011-
378] and the [European Community’s] Seventh Framework
Programme [FP7/2007-2013] under agreement PITN-GA-2011-
290011 and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research
Council [D52199X,E027436].
Funder references
Leverhulme Trust (RF-2011-378)
European Commission (290011)
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2015.00105
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/248549
Rights
Attribution 2.0 UK: England & Wales
Licence URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/uk/
Statistics
Recommended or similar items
The following licence files are associated with this item: